Matching Tees
When I saw these t-shirts reviewed on babble I just could not resist! I bought this Mum&Baby gift set for my 6-month-old daughter and myself. I think they are cool because they are so obviously ‘retro’…. kind of 70s/80s. It would be the perfect outfit if my daughter and I were to hit the festival scene in the UK this summer. Unfortunately we are not, but I might as well get her some wellies…
You can get them with other pop icons, some more suitable for boys if you want to wear it with your son!
The baby shirts have shoulder poppers while the mummy’s have a fitted waist and a bit of extra length to cover post-baby tummies.
Stardust is a family company based in South London but they ship internationally for a very reasonable fee.
-Michela
Oma
As you know, I’ve been away for a while. The reason is that my mum died three weeks ago at her house in France. I have been there for a long time; first to be with her, then to be with my dad (they were going to celebrate their 40th anniversary this December)…
My mum was first diagnosed with breast cancer about six years ago and it was successfully treated at that time. Last summer it was suddenly back, and despite all her struggles, this time it just couldn’t be beaten.
I will miss her…
I will miss her for the big things in life (births, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays…), the little things (advice, recipes, gossip, daily chit-chat), but most of all I will miss her as the grandmother of my children.
She was such a wonderful and perfect ‘oma’ (Dutch for granny), and my children adored her as such. You can’t imagine the amount of dresses she has sewn, jumpers she has knit, cards she has written and presents she has bought in the little time (three years) she had to be what she was looking forward to most: a grandmother.
It’s a cliché, but it is oh, so true: Sometimes, life just isn’t fair…
xxx Esther
P.S. The picture is of my mum with my daughter at the house in France about 5 weeks before she died.
P.P.S. Thank you so, so much for all your sweet messages. They made me cry, but it really, really helps.
Savon de Marseille
Marseille as a town is not particularly known for its cleanliness, but one of its most famous products is the soap. Le savon de Marseille is a French institution. It has been around for a least 700 years using, as its main ingredients, olive (the green variety) or palm oil (the white variety) and Mediterranean sea water. It traditionally comes as a big cube of soap and it it used to clean everything and anything. My grandmother still uses it to clean all her dishes as she does not trust modern dish-washing liquids to clean well enough! (Isn’t it funny how that generation is actually a lot more environmentally friendly than we are, without even trying?)
I personally swear it is the only way to get rid of nasty stains on baby and kids’ clothes. Just rub it on, soak it and wash normally, and most of the time the soap has gotten rid of all evidence. (more…)
Trainer chopsticks
My friend, Amanda, called yesterday and asked if I had any good recommendations for trainer chopsticks. I didn’t have any, but I figured Jenna from Babygadget would be the expert… after all, she is a trusted kiddie product reviewer, is in the food business, has two kids herself, AND is Korean. If that’s not expertise, I don’t know what is!
A search on Babygadget came up with a few different options. It seems the Edison Chopsticks are the best because the positioning loops help your kids know where to place their fingers. But because they are sourced directly from Korea, they’re apparently hard to get your hands on! The Chopstick Kids
Cake toppers
I wish, oh wish, I could get married all over again and get Ann Wood to design the cake-toppers for me!
Are these not the cutest little birds you’ve ever seen?? So stinken’ cute.
I’ve just spent the past half hour browsing her blog, where she displays all her creations in the making, including paintings and other works of art. It’s all so beautiful.
Ann Wood also has an Etsy shop where, if you’re lucky, you can find a few items before they’re all sold out.
-Courtney
Cinema Festival
As a hardened Cinemaphile (does that word exist?) I am really looking forward to the annual Paris Cinema Festival which starts on the 1st of July. Within that framework there is a great little mini film festival going on, just for kids.
There will be screenings of new films like Kung Fu Panda, screening of films for little kids from the age of 3 onwards, and cinema workshops for older kids. The workshops look like so much fun — the kids get to remix the sound for a whole film and other cool things like that (the workshops are from 7 years onward).
Also on the programme are screenings of classic films like the Jungle Book, which I am esp. excited to see as it is the first film I remember ever seeing in a cinema! I can’t wait to take my daughter to see it — what a trip down memory lane. After all you can’t beat seeing a movie on a cinema screen as opposed to the TV….
- Emilie
Pimpa!
This super cute dog was invented by Francersco Tullio-Altan in 1975 for his daughter Chicca. In Pimpa’s world (like in every child’s), all the animals, plants or objects talk like human beings. Pimpa has many adventures; she travels very far, meets new animals and sees new countries. What is nice and unique is that these adventures are always very “normal” — there is no drama at all… no bad guy, no witch, no war, no scary wolf. Pimpa is so nice that she makes new friends wherever she goes.
Her adventures were first published in 1977 with weekly stories on the “Corriere dei Piccoli”, a weekly children’s magazine, and they were immediately a big hit. She now has a monthly magazine full of stories, games and colouring inserts. (more…)
Creative Charlie
In my efforts to be crafty with my boys, I try to save every sort of ribbon, button, paper, etc. for a fun rainy day project. The problem is that my ‘arts & craft’ drawer looks like a tornado took a spin through it. And every time I feel inspired, I take one look at that drawer and decide I’ll just get out the trusty finger paints or crayons instead. Creativity squashed.
Enter: the Creative Charlie arts and craft boxes. Each box comes with its own theme or project, like ‘make hats’ or ‘make jewelery’, and there’s even a ‘rainy day box’ filled with loads of different materials to keep your little ones busy all day long. Everything you need for the project is all in one box — simple and easy.
All the materials have been sourced to be eco-friendly, including all 100% recycled paper and cardboard.
You can order the boxes online here…. your next rainy day sorted!
-Courtney
Zara Home
Good old Zara has done it again: they have managed to invade the home decoration market with stylish rip-offs of more expensive brands.
I was in one of the Paris branches the other day and found a whole department dedicated to kids. They had lovely bed linens and furniture (I love the old-style French highchair), children’s sleepwear and indoor shoes, all as pretty as the brands they are trying to emulate. There are two shops here in Paris but you can also order all the goods online in most European countries.
- Emilie
Butterfly Oasis
Last Sunday we decided to face the afternoon heat (we are now in the 30s here) and head to the Giardini Pubblici to visit the new Butterfly Oasis next to the Natural History Museum. It’s a pavilion that hosts an exhibition of many species of butterflies, imported weekly from Africa, South America and Sout-East Asia. The 200 sqm area is divided in two sections. The first part explores the meaning of colours in nature, with loads of pictures and a few live animals. The second part is the true butterfly exhibit, where a tropical environment is recreated to showcase butterflies and cocoons in their habitual settings. The visitor can walk through plants and climbing orchids while butterflies fly all around him. The Butterfly Oasis is, at this stage, a temporary project open until the end of September but the administration says they will, by the end of the year, open a permanent butterfly house that will be four times bigger, making it the largest in Italy. We had a nice time, and although it is not as big and nice as the one in the London Zoo, I highly recommend it, especially if you or your kids have never seen a butterfly house!
Another positive effect: after standing in true tropical heat to look at the butterflies, even Milan weather is more bearable!
-Michela
Vanessa Berberian
We have never gotten professional photos taken of our boys. What with the hundreds of photos we take each week, we’ve probably never had the need for professional ones. The problem, however, is that there are no (zero, zilch, nill) photos of me with both my boys!
So, what I decided to do this year for Father’s Day, after several requests from my own father, is to get a photographer out to take photos of the boys and me.
I can assure you that getting both my boys to behave and smile at the same time was no easy task. Thankfully, I was in the hands of the ever patient and talented, Vanessa Berberian! (more…)
Do a wash
As you might have noticed from one of my previous posts, I am starting to love cardboard kids’ furniture. It comes flat packed, can be packed away again if necessary and crucially, they get to decorate it themselves! I LOVE the cardboard washing machine from the Italian brand, NUME! How much fun could you have decorating and playing with it!? And it would keep my daughter away from my washing machine, which would be a good thing as she hasn’t quite grasped the concept of separating the dark wash from the white wash yet…..
The NUME cardboard washing machine is available at the Little Fashion Gallery.
-Emilie
OWO
Apparently parents change 3,650 nappies in 3 years!
With all that changing, it really should be an easy process. So, even if your nursery is not the most spacious and cannot accommodate a big traditional changing station, it doesn’t mean you have to resort to the floor, your own bed or a cot-top changer that is always in the way. Timkid have come up with a cute solution for small spaces: the OWO changing table. It hangs on the wall (so you can decide the right height), it folds up flat against the wall, it stores nappies and wipes, and you can hook a toy or a mobile on top of it to entertain your baby. This sleek changing table can hold up to 50 kilos, is made of birch, and the top part comes in 6 colours!
I discovered it in one of my favourite hotels in the Dolomites region a couple of years ago. I thought it was such a brilliant idea and really comfortable — much better than any other changing table you find in restaurants.
You can buy it directly from their site if there isn’t a distributor in your country.
-Michela
Wooden walker
This wooden walker might not look like anything special, but it’s the sound it makes that is so cool: as you push it along, the balls inside pop around and make the most attractive noise! And like all Plan Toys products, it’s really beautiful. The blend of natural rubber wood with bright (non-toxic) paint colors makes for a good-looking push toy!
All the corners are rounded so it’s safe for your littler walkers, and I’m sure your bigger walkers will enjoy pretending like they’re helping to ‘vacuum’ your house, or ‘mow’ your lawn… or whatever you want to tell them!
-Courtney
Merry go round
Isn’t it funny how you often don’t realize something exists, even though you have passed it a million times?
For years I have been roaming the streets of Paris, as a tourist and as a local, and have completely missed the merry-go-rounds, which you seem to be able to find on most major squares and parks. Many of them are a bit tacky but some are beautiful, turn of the last century originals! (Some of my favorites are the one in the Jardin des Plantes, the Tuilleries Garden, the Luxembourg Gardens and the one in the picture –at the foot of the Sacree Coeur.)
Now that I have a 2-year-old, I can promise you I have noticed them, noted mentally where they are and know the alternative route around them so that I don’t hear the cry: “Mummy, I want to go on the Manege!”
The Manege has become my best blackmailing tool ever. A promise to the Manege gets the little one to take cough medicine, gets her to bed and a million other things… and it isn’t even bad for her teeth!
Oh and I almost forgot to add, as a special treat to parents’ pockets… around Christmas and New Year the Parisian Maneges are free.
-Emilie
(Picture from here)
Shopping made easier
To save on labour costs, many Italian supermarkets now allow regular customers to use a bar-code reader while shopping to scan their groceries. Once the shopping is done you return the reader to a dedicated till and pay. This helps reduce queues at the till and shopping trips become faster.
This whole process is made even easier, if you use the easyshopping bag from Reisenthel. This useful bag stretches across the entire width of the shopping trolley and hooks on both sides. After filling the bag with groceries you just un-hook it, shut the aluminium bars and carry it away!
They also come in different colours so you can easily separate your shopping while still in the supermarket. How cool is that?
They have many retailers all over the world and the Reisenthel online shop ships internationally.
-Michela
The career dilemma
It is an ever occurring question that I have debated for hours and hours with all my mom (and non-mom) friends: what is better — full time mom or career mom? We have as yet never found a solution, and maybe there isn’t one and something always has to give…
I found this article in the Guardian newspaper really interesting. It explores the role of the mother as a worker versus a stay-at-home mom and how it has developed throughout recent history.
-Emilie
This is for you
My friend, Belinda, just gave me this book as a late birthday present, and was surprised that I had never heard of Rob Ryan before… After all, his work has graced the cover of Vogue magazine, he’s designed the window displays for Liberty, worked with Paul Smith, and is a well-known Londoner. His beautiful and intricate paper cut-outs and poetic verses are famous. (Check his website to see his work, and you’ll see why.) So where have I been? Having babies I suppose…
Rob Ryan’s book, This Is for You
You can buy the book from Amazon, and you can also browse his Etsy shop for other beautiful prints and tiles.
-Courtney
Controversial bumpers
Reading this article on ohdeedoh I realised how confused and diverse the advice is on baby bedding safety. In the UK, they discourage the use of any soft bedding until the baby is one year old in order to reduce the risk of SIDS. But as the BBC reports, there is no agreement on the use of cot bumpers, so no strong advice on the matter is given. In the US, a few organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, advise against the use of bumpers and have come up with new guidelines on safe baby sleeping. Funnily enough, in Italy everyone is silent; very few parents are aware of the risks associated with using cot bumpers and duvets for young babies. I wonder what happens in the rest of Europe.
But as the article says, baby bedding is still, more often than not, sold in sets which include bumpers (and comforters) and many parents use them more out of aesthetic need than actual comfort. (more…)
Spin Art
I was trawling the internet the other day for fun things to do on a rainy day (I am preparing myself for a cold summer so that I don’t get disappointed). I found this on the Artful Parent Blog and I loved it.
Basically all you do is stick a paper plate into a salad spinner, blob on some paint in 2 or 3 different colours and spin the spinner. Forget about the kids, it keeps me busy for hours on end.
Thanks to Jean Van Hul from Artful Parent for the tip!
-Emilie
